New Delhi: According to official data, one out of every 36 infants in India dies within the first year of life, despite the fact that the rate of infant mortality has decreased in recent decades.
The Newborn Mortality Rate (IMR) is defined as the number of infant deaths (under one year) per thousand live births in a given time period and for a certain location, and is widely acknowledged as a rudimentary measure of a country’s or region’s overall health situation.
According to fresh data issued by the Registrar General of India, India’s current infant mortality rate (28 newborn deaths per thousand live births in 2020) is less than one-fourth of what it was in 1971. (129 infant deaths per thousand live births).
In the last ten years, the IMR has dropped by around 36%, and the IMR at the national level has dropped from 44 to 28.
“The corresponding decline in rural areas is 48 to 31, and for urban areas it is from 29 to 19, thereby exhibiting about 35 per cent and 34 per cent decadal decline respectively,” it said.
However, the bulletin said that “despite the decline in the IMR over the last decades, one in every 36 infants die within first year of their life at the national level (irrespective of rural-urban)”.
In 2020, the maximum IMR has been reported for Madhya Pradesh (43) and the minimum for Mizoram (3).
The birth rate at the all-India level has declined drastically over the last five decades from 36.9 in 1971 to 19.5 in 2020, it said.
The gap between rural and urban areas has also shrunk in recent years. In the previous five decades, however, the birth rate in rural areas has remained higher than in urban ones.
In the recent decade, the birth rate has dropped by nearly 11%, from 21.8 in 2011 to 19.5 in 2020. In rural areas, the decline is 23.3 to 21.1 percent, whereas in urban areas, the decline is 17.6 to 16.1 percent (about 9 per cent decline).
Birth Rate is a crude measure of fertility of a population and is a crucial determinant of population growth. It gives the number of live births per thousand population in a given region and year.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
